Dear Editor
I refer to your article on the possible opening up of the Indian legal market (in the December 2014/January 2015 issue). On the question of whether the Indian legal market is ready for foreign law firms, I would say that different law firms are positioned differently for the market to open up. The structure of an Indian law firm will determine readiness.
What is clear is that our legal market has come a long way since the liberalization of the economy in the 1990s and today it stands as a professional and dynamic market. It can be argued that the entry of foreign law firms would have the same effect that liberalization had on other sectors in India – it enhanced competitiveness, ensured better quality of services and more opportunities for all stakeholders.
With regard to the comment by an in-house counsel that there is “no comparison” between the quality of a foreign firm’s service and what an Indian firm provides, I would say that it’s unfair to generalize all the Indian firms under the same category.
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One has to keep in mind that the market in India is not fully matured, for example, we are only recently moving towards sector specialization.
The ground reality is that a number of Indian law firms are young and small; they cannot be compared to an international law firm with multiple offices and hundreds of lawyers!
If an Indian law firm is able to get work from an international client (without the need for that client to engage their international law firm on the same matter) it speaks for its quality.
And I would agree that not all firms can do it. Firms in India have come a long way and making the right choice makes the difference. I also feel that Indian companies are increasingly becoming sophisticated consumers of legal services, which is resulting in a shift in the quality of output by Indian law firms.
Rabindra Jhunjhunwala
Partner
Khaitan & Co
Mumbai
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